Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
Midoriya tapped his fingers on his desk as Sensei Aizawa droned on and on about hero things. He didn’t care. It was probably useless anyway. Shifting around in his seat, Midoriya sighed, breath puffing from his nose. He couldn’t focus on anything. The notebook on his desk that he usually had filled with notes by now was empty. The blank pages stared up at him, blinding him. His pen was gone, rolled off his desk, and far away by now. He would never get it back.
“You got your power from All Might, didn’t you,” Bakugo said softly. He stared at Midoriya as if daring him to challenge what he said.
Midoriya blinked at him. So, this was what Bakugo had wanted to talk about. It seemed stupid for them to come all the way out here. The two of them stood in ground beta in the dead of night, past curfew. If Midoriya had known that this was what it was about, he wouldn’t have come at all.
Too late now.
Ever since the camping incident, Bakugo had been feeling confused, bewildered, a little angry, confuzzled, tricked, fooled, bamboozled, and unhinged. Things just weren’t making sense to him. It was like he had woken up that morning to find that his dad had an anger problem and his mother had become the sweetest creature on earth. Or gravity had shifted so that he could walk on the ceiling.
Why had Izuku saved him? It didn’t make sense. Midoriya didn’t even like him, didn’t even acknowledge his presence when they were standing in the same room. Sure, Midoriya had saved him before, but that was different. This time he was inviting himself to a world of pain. Bakugo had been scared, but if he could do it all over again, he would have had Midoriya stay. The kid had broken arms for goodness' sake.
Just as he predicted, things were different. All the smiles and kind words towards him felt like lies and mocking pity. Midoriya hated it. He hated his friends, (except for Kirishima, the stupid redhead, who didn’t try to give him any pity and had even offered to smack him in the face) and he hated his teachers, (except for all might) and he hated the villains, and he especially hated whoever hade spilled his secret to all the world. He was going to kill them. He was just, inches away from hunting the reporter down and breaking his nose.
Nightmares didn’t help his mood at all, they were filled with, not only people screaming at him to give up his dream, but had villains whispering dark things, even asking (ordering) him to join them. The only thing that made things better was Kota's thank you note.
Everyone who watched the news now knew that he had been quirkless for most of his life. Midoriya was embarrassed and didn’t want to see how his classmates reacted to that. It was a big shocker. it had been his deepest, darkest secret beside one for all. Bakugo had known but hadn't told anyone, and Midoriya owned him for that. (Well, now after saving him from being kidnapped, they were even. but still)
In his mind's eye, Midoriya could imagine all his friends being disgusted of or even worse, pitying him. He didn’t want them to leave him, but then he told himself that he didn’t care, and it didn’t matter. He knew that he was lying to himself. Midoryia just didn't want them to think of him any different.
“I am not All Might” Izuku snarled out.
“Well of course you’re no-” Endeavor started to say, but this time Midoriya cut him off.
“Right, of course, I’m not.” Izuku turned his head back so he could see Endeavor’s face and meet his eye, "And Todoroki isn't you!”
Endeavor glared at him, his flames whooshing again. Izuku glared back, daring the man to do something.